Review: Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi

Title: Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
Author: Tahereh Mafi

Published: November 15th 2011 by Harper
Add It: Goodreads
Purchase: Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Summary from goodreads: Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

What I think: The beginning of this book will leave you with many-many questions. For starters, why is she locked up, why hasn’t she touched anyone, what happened to the world, what the F is wrong with her? I could keep on going for a while but I’ll give you the opportunity to make a few up on your own.

In some books this is a good thing, the questions. For this one; I really don’t know. It did not really work for me; the beginning was in my opinion really vague and I didn’t get how she got in this situation. Of course this is also a reason to keep on reading. A few chapters into the book we finally got some answers and the story started to get more interesting.

Juliette is very insecure and damaged by her past. Being locked up and not able to see people for numerous days isn’t healthy for the human brain and that is clearly visible in Juliette. But this girl is not just damaged; she has a will-power that is bigger than god himself. It is kind of amazing to see how Juliette grows throughout the book. Bit by bit she gets more self-esteem and is able to say what she thinks instead of just thinking it.

The hero in this book is Adam, he is sweet and caring, but also kicks some serious but. The other main character is Mr. Villain, Warner. I even think the name is kind of creepy, and that is what he definitely is, creepy! He is made up perfectly, first you hate him, then you feel sorry for him and then you hate him again, and this cycle keeps on going.

In the end there were a few parts where I thought that it was dreading too much. I got bored with Juliette and Adam, it felt at some times that there was no chemistry at all, even though it was supposed to be there.

The writing style in Shatter Me is different. It took me some getting just too when I just started, but I have to say that in the end I really enjoyed it. Tahereh Mafi has a good way with words and really got me into this story, at some points it was almost as if I was really there, thinking those things going on in Juliette’s head.

I liked where the story was going in the end and I would like to one day read the second book. Can’t say that it is high on my to-read list at the moment but it is definitely there!